


The Nightmare

by Raggedpelt



Series: Perry the Platypus: Cover Stories [2]
Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Gen, canon-friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2017-05-16
Packaged: 2018-11-01 14:31:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10923777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raggedpelt/pseuds/Raggedpelt
Summary: Sometimes, the best cure for a nightmare is some time spent with the family pet. A short one-shot from Ferb's POV. No shipping. Complete.





	The Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> This short one-shot is actually an excerpt from somewhere in the middle of my much longer fic, "Evil By Proxy". However, it is stand-alone and should make sense without the rest of the fic.

Ferb was awakened by a soft, suede-like bill nipping at his nose. He’d been having the nightmare again, the one he could never quite remember when he woke up. The only things that really stuck with him after it were the sound of screaming brakes (or tires?), an intense sensation of vertigo, and the smell of smoke. While he could never properly remember the dream, those fleeting sensations always stuck with him afterwards in a way that made his heart race and his nerves jump. It would be nearly impossible to go back to sleep.

Perry nipped him again, then chattered, so Ferb reached over and turned on the small lamp he kept next to his bed. Hopefully it wouldn’t wake up Phineas. The monotreme was sitting with his front feet on a book that he’d pulled at random from their little bookshelf. “Doing this at two in the morning is likely setting a bad precedent,” he whispered, “But I don’t think I’m going to go back to sleep, anyway.” He carefully scooped up Perry and the book, and crept downstairs so they wouldn’t wake Phineas.

Ferb sat in the big, poofy recliner, and Perry settled into his accustomed spot between Ferb’s  arm and his body. He gave his pet an affectionate squeeze, opened the novel, then began to read. “ _Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable_ …”

Back when they first got Perry, Ferb had been having quite a bit of difficulty learning to read. The more he tried, the further behind he seemed to slip. Phineas’s constant attempts to help him had somehow only made his lack of innate ability more frustrating. After all, his brother had taken to it like a duck to water. The contrast made his lack of progress all the more disheartening.

Then, two days after they got Perry, Mom had the brilliant suggestion that Ferb read out loud to him, because platypuses were well-known for “loving books” but “couldn’t read at all”. When he had objected that he wasn’t a very good reader and that it should be Phineas’s job, she insisted that Phineas went much too fast for Perry to follow, but Ferb’s pace would be perfect for him.

The lack of human judgment had done wonders. There was no pressure to get it right, or to go fast. Perry didn’t care if Ferb mispronounced or stumbled on a word, didn’t know that Ferb had a strange accent, and was content to just sit and stare at him adoringly. Now that he was older, Ferb knew that the little animal was probably just happy to be getting someone’s undivided attention, but at the time it had been a godsend.

For a year or two, reading to Perry before bedtime had been a nightly routine. Through all the extra time and practice, he slowly caught up to and then surpassed his classmates (though admittedly not Phineas, who was tackling the Iliad in second grade) Eventually, there was no longer much of a need for reading to Perry, and the habit slowly vanished over time. Now it was just something he did every now and then, when Perry pulled a random book off the shelf and brought it to him as a way to ask for attention.

Even now it was soothing, and before long Ferb felt his nerves settling. He had been reading for almost an hour when he heard a faint buzz from Perry. The noise was so fleeting he was sure he had imagined it, but for a moment he almost thought that his pet had buzzed like a cellphone. Perry promptly got up, hopped off the chair, and scurried off.

Perry’d never run off in the middle of being read to before. Ferb knew he was anthropomorphizing the actions of a non-sentient creature, but he couldn’t help but feel a bit hurt by it. Still, best not to dwell on it. He didn’t bother with a bookmark, just put the book back on the shelf and headed back to bed.


End file.
